So much for my plans of going back to the original update-cycle. :P I Know it's been too long, but here you go with chapter 12, I made this one extra long for you all, enjoy!
As they approached Nipton, they got more careful with each step, the smell of the burning houses lingering in the air.
"Hold up, someone's coming!" Ashley suddenly said and kneeled down, bringing her rifle up, aligning the sights.
Joan and Cass both followed her aim, getting ready to fight as well.
"What the fuck? Is he….bouncing?" Cass asked.
"Looks that way." Was Joan's response.
As the man came closer, they heard that he was chanting something over and over again.
"Who won the lottery? I won the lottery!" He said again and again, stopping as he was about ten meters from the weapons that were pointed at him and everybody just stared at each other.
"Umm…what lottery?" Joan asked suddenly.
"What lottery? THE fucking lottery! What are you, stupid? Fuck it, I'm outta here, I won the fucking lottery!" he yelled and bounced away.
"That was possibly the weirdest thing I ever encountered….and I saw a lot of things." Ashley said, still staring after the strange man.
"Yeah, but why doesn't this give me a better feeling about this town?" Joan said.
"Maybe because it's burning and apparently driving people mad?" Cass said. They shared a quick laugh and continued towards the town.
They entered Nipton and walked through the streets, Cass on point with her shotgun, Ashley and Joan checking alleys and corners. Until Ashley suddenly bumped into Cass, who stopped.
"What the hell'd you stop for?" She asked.
"This." Cass simply said and pointed ahead. Ashley looked and frowned, while Joan gasped and looked away as they saw a man nailed to a cross, still squirming.
"What the fuck happened here?" Ashley whispered to nobody in particular.
"That's got Legion written all over it." Cass said.
They were pulled out of their awe as they heard dogs barking. They turned towards the corner of a house in front of them and saw several vicious looking dogs charging towards them.
"Holy shit!" Joan managed to yell before they all opened fire, blasting the group of dogs with guns and lasers.
"Reload!" Ashley yelled as the dogs were dead and she saw Joan just standing there, weapon lowered and smoking.
"What? The dogs are dead!" Joan said, a puzzled look on her face.
"She's right, dogs didn't nail those poor bastards to a cross, there's more to this." Cass said as she put new rounds into the tube of her shotgun.
"Please, lower your weapons, we will not harm you!" Came a loud voice from behind the house.
"Your dogs seemed to think otherwise!" Ashley yelled back.
"We thought you were another one of those degenerates that used to live here, sorry about that. Please, come over and let me explain." The voice said again.
"Alright I'm coming, but I won't lower my weapon!" Ashley yelled.
"What are you, crazy? You can't go over there!" Joan said, grabbing Ashley's arm.
"I can and I will, you stay back and be ready to fight, if something happens to me, blow them to pieces!" Ashley said and walked towards the corner of the house, assault rifle at the ready.
Joan and Cass kept her weapons up and watched Ashley slowly round the corner.
"She went totally mental on us, absolutely insane!" Cass concluded silently.
"I trust her judgment; I think everything will be alright." Joan said.
They waited about a minute until they suddenly heard automatic fire from where Ashley went. They rushed towards the corner and just as they reached it, Ashley came walking backwards, firing full auto on whoever was on the other side. Before they could get closer or say anything to her, they heard a much louder shot ring out, followed by Ashley's painful groan and her dropping to the ground, not moving.
"Fuck!" Cass screamed out, grabbing the collar of Ashley's vest and dragging her back into cover while Joan stood there, stunned.
"Will you shoot already?" Cass screamed at her, snapping her out of her stupor.
"What the hell hit her, is she alright?" Joan yelled as she stuck her laser rifle around the corner and fired blindly.
"I don't know! She's not conscious, that's all I can tell right now. We need to get rid of these assholes first!" Cass yelled, leaving Ashley on the ground and rushed over to Joan, who stopped firing.
"I don't hear anything. But that sounded like a big ass rifle!" Joan said.
"Probably a sniper in one of the houses." Cass said and picked up Ashleys assault rifle.
"What do we do? Shit, shit, shit…Ashley'd know what to do!" Joan said.
"She's out of it, we need to do this ourselves. I got an idea. See that house on the other side of the street?" Cass said.
"Yeah, what about it?" Joan asked skeptically.
"I want you to haul ass over the street and take cover behind it, the sniper will fire on you and I can see where he is and smoke him." Cass said.
"Are you mad? I certainly won't let him shoot me!" Joan said.
"It's our only chance, besides he won't hit you if you run!" Cass said angrily.
"Alright, alright, if this doesn't work, I'll kill you personally!" Joan said and got ready.
"Ready?"
"No."
"Go!"
Joan started running and immediately got shot at, sprinting over the street, bullets impacting all around her feet.
"God…I hope this works..." Cass said as she turned around the corner and looked for the sniper. As she saw his muzzle flash, she brought Ashley's assault rifle to what she thought was the right angle and fired the grenade launcher. She didn't exactly hit the window, but the grenade impacted in the wall slightly under it. She didn't see if she killed the sniper, but his rifle went flying out the remains of the window, which was enough for her.
"I got him, you can come back!" She yelled to Joan, who was leaning against the side of the house and panting, giving her a thumb up. Cass kept watching the area as Joan jogged back to her. They went back around the corner and stopped as they saw Ashley sitting against a wall, fumbling at her armor.
"What the hell?" Cass said, but Joan already started running and threw herself at Ashley, crushing her in a tight hug.
"My god you're alive!" She yelled.
"Hug…not…really…helping!" Ashley just managed to gasp.
Joan pulled away a bit, looked at Ashley, who grinned, and suddenly kissed her.
"Wow, I didn't expect that just now." Cass said as she watched the scene in front of her.
Joan recoiled away from Ashley and blushed bright red, she turned around and walked away a few meters, leaving a wide-eyed and open-mouthed Ashley, who was now joined by Cass.
"You alright?" She asked.
Ashley didn't respond, she even seemed to have stopped breathing.
"HEY!" Cass yelled, which caused Ashley to wince and look at her.
"Yeah, sorry, just a tad confused. That bullet just completely knocked the wind out of me and it hurts like hell. Probably some cracked ribs. But at least we know that this armor can withstand a .308. Gonna be a hell of a bruise tho." Ashley said and held up a crushed bullet.
"And what was that with Joan?" Cass asked.
"Don't know, guess I'm gonna go find out. Can you, um, help me up?" Ashley said, slightly embarrassed.
"Sure." Cass said and pulled Ashley to her feet, who groaned in pain.
"Ow fuck! The next few days are gonna be a pain in the ass….or pain in the chest." Ashley muttered and carefully made her way over to Joan, who looked back towards Mojave Outpost.
"Hey, you alright?" Ashley asked as she stood next to Joan, looking over at her.
"Me? What are you? Stupid? You just got shot and ask me if I'm alright?" Joan burst out. Waving her hands in frustration.
"Whoa! Calm down there! You just seemed a little off so I asked." Ashley responded.
Joan closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. "Sorry, I'm just a little on edge after all this." She said and waved her hands at the smoldering remains of Nipton. "How are you?"
Ashley chuckled. "So nice of you to ask, not like I been shot or anything." She said in a joking tone, which caused Joan to blush.
"God I'm so stupid, sorry! How could I forget to ask how you are?" Joan said, squirming.
"Cause you're dimwit." Ashley joked. "But really I'm fine, just a little bruised up and sore. That armor actually works pretty good. Never seen anything other than power armor or reinforced combat armor stop a .308 from such a relative small distance."
"Well it's bad enough, don't you ever do that again!" Joan said sternly.
"But then we have to stay here cause getting shot is kinda inevitable in the wastes. And I don't like it here, it smells bad." Ashley said, quite amused.
"Jokes, really?" Joan said and raised an eyebrow, which caused Ashley to laugh heartily…and immediately wince from the pain in her chest.
"Gnah! Fuck! Remind me not to laugh the next few days!" Ashley said, holding her chest. "But now onto another topic….are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?"
"What's an eleph… never mind, I don't wanna know! What do you mean?" Joan asked, avoiding Ashley's glance.
"It's not that I mind it, your lips taste rather good to be honest. I'm just wondering what brought that on." Ashley said in a normal tone.
Joan, obviously uncomfortable, squirmed and looked away, Ashley could practically see the wheels in her head turning.
"Alright, no sense talking around I guess, so I'll just say it. I'm attracted to you Ashley…a lot, there's just something on you that's so damn intriguing. Besides, you totally kick ass. And speaking of asses, you got a fine one at that, too." Joan babbled out, apparently wanting to get it out before the courage left her.
Ashley chuckled at the last comment and pulled the redhead in for a hug.
"it's alright, things like that tend to happen out here, the wasteland's got a certain romance on it. And I can't say I'm not attracted to you…on the contrary…" Ashley said and Joan smiled.
"….but…." Ashley continued. "we can't let it happen."
"Why not?" Joan asked, louder than she intended to.
"Because I have experience with this. It happened to me before and I let it. In the end it got me in a lot of trouble because if you get involved with someone you travel and fight with, you lose a lot of combat efficiency. You lose the ability to think objectively if it comes to the point where your partner is in danger. You wouldn't be able to, for example, leave me behind to carry out the mission." Ashley explained calmly.
"This is bullshit and you know it! It doesn't make any difference if you share my feelings, they are there! Being "involved" or not, I'm already at that point!" Joan said angrily.
"I am not discussing this!" Ashley said calm but clearly, causing Joan to stop and just glare at her.
"You'll get over it." Ashley said as she turned and walked back towards Cass, who had been watching them.
"Wow, Miss courier looks unpleased. What'd you say to her? That you have a boyfriend?" Cass said jokingly.
"No, just that she has to suppress her feelings for me if she doesn't wanna die out here and that I'm surely not getting involved with someone I "work" with." Ashley said coldly and took her rifle from Cass.
"Ouch." Was all Cass said.
Joan rejoined them a little later with an angry glare towards Ashley and obvious signs of tears on her face. She picked up her gear in silence.
"Great, gotta love some good old silent hatred." Cass sighed.
"You think there are more of these assholes in the city hall?" Ashley asked, completely ignoring Cass statement and checking her rifle.
"I doubt that the sniper was alone in there, so yeah. Wanna take them out?" Cass said, watching Ashley checking and loading her weapon like a pro.
"You bet, nobody shoots at me without getting payback." Ashley said grimly.
"Good I'm in, the more Legion bastards we kill, the less will be left to pull off crap throughout the Mojave." Cass said, racking the charging handle of her shotgun.
"And I'm not asked?" An angry Joan said next to them.
"It would be two to one in a vote anyway." Ashley simply said.
"Good to know that my opinion is worth so much around her. And for the record, I'm in too." Joan said, causing both Ashley and Cass to look at her in surprise.
"What? The fact that you're a mean bitch doesn't make my feelings go away. Hell, I'll prove to you that you're worrying about absolutely nothing. I thought our last few encounters with bad guys made it clear that I can handle myself in combat, which it apparently didn't, but I will change that!" Joan said confidently and smacked the locked charging handle of her SMG back in place.
"That's the spirit! Now come on, we have to kick some Legion ass." Ashley said with a grin and started leading the group towards Nipton's town hall.
Cass gave Joan a smile and a pat on the shoulder and whispered into her ear. "Keep it up, she'll come around."
The all walked through the street cautiously, keeping their weapons pointed towards the town hall.
When they reached it, Ashley humorlessly kicked in the front door and immediately started shooting her rifle at chest level, expecting a sentry after the previous. The bodies dropping to the ground behind a makeshift barrier proved her right and they entered.
"Two down, hopefully more to go. Cass, you take point, your scattergun is better fitted for this environment." She said grimly.
Cass nodded and went ahead. They went from room to room, Ashley and Joan providing cover in the hallway while Cass entered the rooms and swept them with her shotgun. But she didn't have to fire it; they didn't come across anymore Legionaries on the first floor.
"Figures for the cowards to hide upstairs, doesn't it?" Joan asked.
"Yeah, it is the tactically better position tho, so we have to be careful." Ashley said as they closed in on a stairway. Ashley, not taking any chances this time, pulled the pin from a frag grenade and crept up the stairs slowly, releasing the spring when she neared the corner and tossing the deadly device around it.
They heard panicked "GRENADE!" yells upstairs, followed by the explosion of the grenade and painful screams that faded quickly.
Ashley turned around the corner and headed up, looking at her work, three dead Legionaries, all covered with lots of shrapnel.
"Whew, prewar military sure knew how to make grenades, huh?" Joan asked as she followed along with Cass, who whistled in acknowledgement.
"Sure looks that way." Ashley agreed. "Let's not waste time and clear the floor, Joan you cover the stairs, don't let anything up or down." She added.
"Alright." Joan said and took a position to overlook both staircases as Ashley and Cass walked off to clean the other rooms.
"Clear." Cass said after she checked the last room on the floor, having found no more enemies again.
"Hmm, okay, either there aren't any left or they are all upstairs." Ashley said.
"Let's hope it's the former, shall we?" Joan asked from the stairs.
"Yeah, let's get it over with and head up." Cass said and started walking up.
"Wait, I go first." Ashley said.
"You've been hit once already." Cass said skeptically.
"Yeah but you don't have any armor." Joan said.
Cass looked down and sighed. "Right…okay, lead the way."
Ashley slowly walked up the stairs and peeked around the corner, giving a thumb up to her companions and moving further up, Cass right behind her. As soon as they reached the top, multiple Legionaries opened up on them. Ashley got hit several times and went down immediately, while Cass jumped into a hallway to the right and Joan dove back down the stairs.
"Fuck!" Cass yelled out as she took cover from the hail of gunfire.
"Ashley? ASHLEY? Cass, how is she?" Joan yelled from the stairs.
"I don't know, she's been hit!" Cass yelled back.
"Throw out your weapons and we will not shoot at you!" One of the Legionaries said loudly.
"Ya right!" Came the raspy response from Ashley on the floor.
"You are in no condition to talk up to me like this. You're lucky if we use you and your friends only for some entertainment and don't kill you!" The Legionary said again, causing Joan and Cass to shudder while Ashley stayed calm despite her situation. Cass watcher her move her hands, apparently reaching for her pistol.
Suddenly, Ashley tossd a grenade towards the Legionaries. They panicked and Ashley used the confusion to draw her pistol and shoot the only one of them with a clear line of fire on her, then she quickly rolled behind cover, fumbling for her first aid kit.
"She didn't even pull the pin you stupid idiots!" Came the voice of the Legionary again and Cass had trouble containing her laughter.
Ashley nodded towards Cass to show she was alright but her grin quickly faded as she saw the grenade fly right back and down the stairs, now probably without the pin.
"JOAN!" She yelled out and was in awe, as the grenade suddenly flew back once again, exploding mid-air and sending shrapnel in all directions.
Cass was the first to shake the shock and moved around the corner, blasting twice with her shotgun, killing the last Legionaries that were standing. She gave the all clear and Joan rushed up to Ashley, who grinned at her.
"You can kiss me again…but help me patch the wounds first, okay?" She said.
Joan gave her a half-hearted slap at the shoulder and started examining Ashley.
"Looks like the armor once again took most of the beating." She concluded.
"I figured, but where does this blood come from?" Ashley said, holding up her blood soaked hand.
Joan gasped. "From your arm, you've been hit, oh god!"
"Calm down, go watch the wounded fuckers over there, I'll patch her up." Cass said as she walked up, kneeling down and taking a stimpak out, firmly injecting it right above Ashley's wound
"Argh! Son of a…! Can't you be more sensitive?" Ashley said annoyed.
"Nope, has to be done." Cass simply said and injected Ashley with some Med-X before tightly putting a bandage over the wound.
"There finished. And you should really thank whoever made that armor of yours." Cass said as she stood up.
"Yeah well, might need a new one now." Ashley said as she tugged at the torn fabric over her Kevlar.
Cass chuckled and helped Ashley up, who groaned a bit.
"You know, it still hurts, but the .308 sure was worse." She said and chuckled.
They laughed and walked over to Joan, who was guarding two wounded Legionaries, one of them their leader.
"Oh, so nice to meet you again…what was it? Vulpes Inculta?" Ashley said as she looked down at him.
He glared up and said nothing.
"Well whatever, good riddance!" Ashley said before she shot him coldly, then turning and doing the same to the other Legionary that was still alive. Joan slightly winced at the shots, still not entirely used to the coldness of Ashley's killings.
"Are you okay?" Joan finally asked Ashley, who nodded and gave her a grin.
"Had worse! And now that this is done, let's loot the place and get the fuck out. Oh and by the way, nice move with the grenade!" Ashley said and patted Joan's shoulders.
They went through the building and took all the caps, ammo, medical supplies, food and even weapons they could carry from the Legion and left Nipton Hall.
"Well whadda you know, the smell out here is actually worse than the smell inside and that's saying a lot." Cass joked, lightening the mood with a few laughs before they went back on their way towards Novac.
"Yeah and also, so much for staying on the road is safer." Ashley grumbled and rubbed her shoulder, causing Cass and Joan to laugh again.
